The present invention relates to an automatic pin setting machine used in bowling alleys and, more particularly, to a ball kicker which forms part of the assembly for returning the ball to the bowler.
In one type of automatic pin setting machine, the ball, after it has been thrown by the bowler and reaches the pit area at the end of the lane, is guided to a ball return assembly. One component of this assembly is a ball kicker which moves the ball to the ball-return track. The ball kicker means is conventionally formed of a rubber cylindrical member or a rubber frusto-conical member having a cylindrical base which contacts the ball. Prior art ball kickers have a durometer hardness (Type A Shore Durometer) of about 60 or higher. The prior art ball kicker generally performs adequately when the bowling ball is dry. When conditioning oil has been applied to the lane, however, to produce a tight lane condition, i.e. to minimize excessive hooking, the ball picks up some of the oil. When this happens the oil reduces friction to such an extent that the ball kicker is unable to move the ball to the ball-return track. The result is that the ball just lies against the rotating ball kicker until the ball is manually moved onto the ball-return track. This result sometimes occurs even with a dry bowling ball in the case of light bowling balls. This condition delays the game and is a source of annoyance to the bowler as well as an expensive inconvenience to the management.